Final Thoughts and Conclusions

The Be Quiet! Silent Base 600 case is a full-featured mid-tower enclosure that focuses on quiet, virtually silent operation, while at the same time delivering excellent cooling performance, usability and support for high-end hardware. The Silent Base 600 is very similar to the original Silent Base 800; the internal chassis compartments are identical. The Silent Base 600 is 2.5” shorter than the 800 and does not offer as many internal drive locations as the 800. The Silent Base 600 now includes a convenient three-speed fan controller built-in, but only comes with two case fans instead of the 800’s three. Overall, we like the new Silent Base 600 even better than the original Silent Base 800, but we do miss the extra intake fan.

The Silent Base 600 provides several different case cooling options and comes with two installed fans to get you started, with optional locations for up to six case fans. The enclosure also supports both single and dual fan radiators (120mm/140mm and 240mm/280mm) for liquid cooling. The Silent Base 600 proved very easy to work with and required a minimum of tools. The front door and both side panels are lined with sound absorption material to keep the noise down and the large side window is double-glazed to provide additional sound isolation.

The Silent Base 600 case can easily accommodate extended VGA adapters and offers three internal HDD mounting bays, three internal 2.5” SSD mounting locations and three external 5.25” bays. Overall the build quality is very good, the case is easy to work with, and it is has the potential to offer excellent cooling with minimal noise.

Combining silent operation and high performance can be quite a challenge. The Silent Base 600 enclosure provides an excellent foundation to build upon but ultimately it will be the parts that you choose to install into this case that will determine the final noise to performance benefit.

If your main goal is to build a very quiet, virtually silent PC then pay close attention to your choice for CPU/CPU cooler, VGA/VGA cooler, and power supply. Look for components that are designed to operate efficiently with minimal waste heat generation. With the right choices you can assemble a relatively powerful PC that can still operate with minimal noise and be virtually silent.

However, if ultimate performance is your goal you may have to compromise silence at the expense of keeping all the high-end bits powered properly and cooled adequately. High-end parts generate heat and dissipating that heat generally requires airflow. The more heat the more airflow to maintain stable operation. And in most cases, increasing the airflow increases the noise. The Silent Base 600 has been designed to help minimize this noise but it can only do so much. So again, if you are careful in selecting parts designed for high efficiency and quiet operation, the finished package can deliver an outstanding performance to noise ratio.

The Be Quiet! Silent Base Window Mid-Tower case is currently selling for $119.90 USD at newegg.com (October 2015). The Silent Base 600 without a window is priced at $109.90 USD.  

Strengths:
•    Very quiet
•    Clean styling with three color scheme choices
•    Excellent case cooling options with support for liquid cooling
•    One 140mm intake fan and one 120mm exhaust fan included
•    Three-speed fan controller included
•    Sound absorption material on front and both side panels
•    Large double-glazed side window
•    Six different case fan mounting locations
•    Support for both single and dual fan radiators
•    Tool-free ODD and 3.5” HDD bay mounts
•    Three 5.25" external drive bays
•    Three 3.5” internal HDD bays and three 2.5” SSD locations
•    Front intake and PSU intake dust filters – easy to clean
•    Oversized CPU back plate cutout for easy CPU cooler installation
•    Allows installing extended VGA adapters (up to 413mm – 16.3”)
•    Functional cable routing cutouts and extra room for neat wiring
•    Easily accessible front I/O panel with USB 3.0 ports
•    Good value (performance to cost)

Minor Weaknesses:
•    
A little tight for large radiator/fan combos under top panel
•    A single 140mm intake fan instead of two (like the Silent Base 800)
•    No external hot-swap 3.5” HDD bays
 

Be Quiet! Silent Base 600 Window Mid-Tower Case

I would like to thank our friends at Be Quiet! for sending us the Silent Base 600 case to review – thank you.

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